ILARIA LUISI – We have the power

Ilaria Luisi is one of the most popular parkour & freerunning female athlete.

Ilaria lives in capital of Italy, Rome. She is doing parkour & freerunning more than 3 years. She was born in 1988 and she started as a gymnast when she was 7. After her career on many gymnastics competitions, she decided to leave schematic rules and perfect moves in training and totally changed her hobby into hip hop dance. Lately, inspired by stunts from videos of many popular freerunners, she started to practice parkour and freerunning again in the gym. Nowadays, she has a very beautiful flow which we can see at the very bottom of this article. So let´s introduce this talented girl – Ilaria Luisi!

Sideflip Ilaria Luisi / photo by: Emily Santoro

• What was inspiring you to start with parkour and freerunning?

At the beginning i was inspired by stuntsmen, Damien Walters (from England) and Cyril Raffaelli (from France), then i saw some russian guys on youtube. Like Ivan Savchuk’s and Cherepko ‘s videos. These incredible athletes inspired me so much, that i started to practice in a gym again. Finally, after many years of gymnastic break, I started again. Then i met a friend in Rome who already trained outside with other people, i was struck by fast vaults and big jumps with long distances. This way i started to do parkour. It was just a hobby for 3 years, but today i can’t imagine to live without parkour and freerunning, they became my lifestyle.

• What or who motivates you to practice?

When you find a true passion and you have some goals to achieve, the motivation is always inside of your mind. Basically i’m motivated by my dreams, they lead me during my training. Every single day i try to push myself to do something that I was scared of one day before. While trying new things i see my limits and then I can push them and improve myself. In parkour and freerunning there are many possibilities to discover what i can do in many different ways, it’s a crazy adventure and i love it for this reason.

• What is your favourite trick?

I‘m working on acrobatics, flips and moves, which I can combine together to different flows. I don’t have a particular favorite trick. But for now, maybe my best move is Tsukahara, combination of power and technique. I fell in love with that move.

Tsukahara at 4TLOM / photo by: Dalibor Balic

• Are you a member of any parkour team or do you practice alone?

Yes i’m member of JUMP FREERUN team, company in the Netherlands and one of the most important organization in the parkour and freeruninng world.

• Where is your favourite parkour spot / park / city?

My favorite is Tufello in Rome, one of the first places where i started to practice. I love my city, there are so many spots for great training.

• What do you recommend to our readers, who wants to start with parkour and freerunning?

Understanding your reasons for training is one of the most important things, because your thoughts will influence your training. Once you get to a certain point with your training the only way to progress will be to train in a different way to the usual method the most people adapt when they begin parkour. This discipline is not a sport like football or rugby, parkour is really different, it’s simply an attitude.

• What would you like to tell other parkour girls whose are interested in parkour?

My advice for girls is to train hard and find your “why”. If you don’t have a right reason you don’t act. And when you find the why, you must love what you do. Passion and motivation are important to get success.

Ilaria Luisi in Tuffello Rome / photo by: Simone Biagioni

• What ‘s your life quote? (your motto)

We have the power to choose who we want to be each day and each moment. For me, life means take decisions in the present, because the future is imagination and we are what we think. There are wrong choices and right choices, but the important thing is to choose a direction. An action brings another action and sometimes people stop to dream and live their routine. It is always important to live the present. Don’t stop your dreaming. You can improve each day if you want, depends on you! If you act, you have more opportunities and more likely to find what you need. If you take a wrong decision, don’t worry and stay positive, you can learn from it, just try again.